US President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion (€12.7 billion) defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, according to court documents published late on Monday. 

The suit claims that there is a "decades-long pattern by The New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump."

In the filing, Trump's lawyers name four journalists, as well as the newspaper itself. It claims these journalists wrote a series of articles and a book that show a "reckless disregard" for the truth.

Last week, the paper once again drew Trump's ire for publishing a note bearing his signature that appeared in a "birthday book" for the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The note is sexually suggestive, leading to renewed conversation about how much the president knew about Epstein's criminal behavior.

Series of lawsuits targeting media outlets

The suit against The New York Times is the latest in a series targeting the US media. In July, he filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over an article linking him to Epstein. The lawsuit also targeted arch-conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose conglomerate owns the Journal.

He has also sued television networks ABC and CBS, both of which settled with the president for millions of dollars.

Edited by: Sean Sinico